Stab victim escaped war-torn Congo to die in Hackney

A journey which began 4,000 miles away for Stevens Nyembo-Ya-Muteba ended in a pool of blood here in Evergreen Square, Hackney.

Could there be a more chillingly ironic place to die?

Yesterday, a newspaper cutting was pinned to the entrance of the block of flats where they found him slumped on a stairwell on Sunday night.

The headlines read: "Savages'". One brutal, merciless, senseless, stabbing, then, and so many lives destroyed; Stevens was a husband, father of two children, and someone's son on the other side of the world.

He had come to Britain to escape the horrors of his homeland in war-torn Congo nearly 10 years ago and became a victim of a very different kind of war on the streets of east London.

It would be easy to get the wrong impression about his tragically short life.

To those who didn't know - and love him - he must have seemed like any other resident eking out an existence in one of the most deprived boroughs in Britain.

They might have seen him driving a delivery van for the local Tesco depot or leaving home in the evening to begin his duties as a night porter at the Criterion Brasserie in central London, owned by Marco Pierre-White.

There would be no shame if this was all there was to Stevens Nyembo-Ya-Muteba. In fact, there was much more.

Those jobs - he was still working for Tesco part-time - not only helped provide for his family but also funded his university studies.

Behind the overalls, you see, was a brilliant mind. On Monday just a few hours after he was murdered, Stevens was due to begin his third, and final, year of lectures at the University of Greenwich.

He would, undoubtedly, have graduated with a BSc in Maths and Finance having already turned down a place at Cambridge to stay closer to home.

We shall never know what he might have achieved. What a terrible waste.

The chain of events that ended with a yob - sorry, youth (we are not supposed to use the 'y' word any more) - pulling a knife on him began 40 years in the Katanga province of the Congo, where he grew up, and where his late father was a company director.

Stevens would eventually go to university in the capital Kinshasa. It was here that he met his future wife Veronique Mponjimasosa (she was known as Bijoux) who was studying for the equivalent of our A levels.

Had this been another place and time you would not be reading this article today.

Except, the Congo was the setting of Joseph Conrad's novel The Heart of Darkness and nothing has changed over the years.

So, like countless others like him, Stevens fled the violence.

In 1988, he finally arrived in Britain; first staying with friends and relatives in Edmonton, north London; Veronique joined him the following year in 1999, eventually the couple were granted asylum and are understood to have married shortly afterwards and settled in Hackney.

Their home was a first-floor flat in a housing association property in Evergreen Square.

It must have seemed like a paradise of sorts. The square was part of a new development opened in 2003 - smart, low-rise council housing replacing the once terrifying Holly Street Estate that dominated the area...the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, in charge of reinvigorating council estates, boasts on its website of the "great improvement to the old Holly Street Estate" which had "transformed a whole community..."

So, it initially proved to be for Stevens and Veronique; they started a family and had two daughters, now aged six and four; the girls went to the local primary school and their parents were regular churchgoers.

Neighbours described them as a "lovely family". Stevens, of course, also resumed his studies in London.

He attended the College of North-East London and became one of their first students to win a place at Cambridge.

He told the college newsletter that he had been assured he had "no chance" of getting into university. But "I believed in myself and I got what I wanted".

As we now know he chose Greenwich over Cambridge because he wanted to be near his wife and children who he "doted on".

This is how it was for Stevens until 48 hours ago when he went to investigate a noise on his doorstep because he had been trying to sleep (Stevens was due back at college the following morning as we said).

He ushered away about 12 youths who neighbours say had been smoking cannabis. Police say "one or more of them" then came back and attacked him causing fatal injuries.

His wife and children were not in at the time. Veronique is understood to have returned later to find her home cordoned off.

"She was just crying her eyes out," said a friend who comforted her.

"Crying and crying. She can't understand how or why this has happened."

It has now emerged that Stevens - and Veronique - had asked police to help them a month before he died; they also wanted the council to improve security in their block.

It is easy to look for scapegoats, of course, but, in the end, the only people to blame are those whose faces Stevens saw shortly after 10pm on Sunday.

Yesterday, forensic experts in white boiler suits were combing the block of flats where Stevens lived and died.

Outside, friends and neighbours had left flowers and poignant tributes.

One said: "My brother, rest in peace. God will punish your enemy and I will always love you."

It was signed John. Another was from the residents of Evergreen Square ..."May your soul rest in peace with the Almighty. Your Lord Jesus will comfort your family."

Only last year Stevens Nyembo-Ya-Muteba was granted a British passport. It was say those who knew him, one of the happiest days of his life.

"He was delighted," said one. How could Stevens or anyone have guessed he would never live long enough to enjoy it.